This invention relates to improvements in switching apparatus, and more particularly to improvements is a switching apparatus of the kind which makes on-off of an electrical circuit.
The switching apparatus of the present invention is a switch of the type which turns on and off an electrical connection between two or more terminals by a movable member which is mechanically actuated. A variety of switches of such a type are commonly known. In a conventional switch structure of this type, the movable member acts as a moving contact, and the switch is placed in the on position when the moving contact is brought into contact with the terminals, while the switch is placed in the off position when the moving contact is moved away from the terminals. This switch structure has not been suitable for applications in which the frequency of on-off manipulation is quite high. That is, this switch structure has been defective in that the service life of the switch is relatively short for the reasons that permanent deformation due to fatigue occurs in the moving contact during repeated use and that an arc jumps across the moving contact and the terminals when the switch is turned off. Another serious defect of the conventional switch has been the fact that the switching action cannot be reliably attained when the moving contact is mounted in an incorrect position during assembling. This fact has also demanded machining and assembling of high precision for the switching apparatus.